I carefully reach over, not wanting to disturb sleeping beauty, grab my phone, and see a text from my mom.
MOM: Not sure how late your team thing is going, I’ll sleep in the guest room. No rush.
Guilt swamps me. It’s well after midnight, and I glance back down at Willow, who’s somehow still asleep. Briefly, I consider sneaking out and not waking her, but she deserves better than that.
“Cherry,” I whisper softly, stroking her hair. “I gotta go home.”
“Mmph.” The adorable noise she makes as she nuzzles in even closer has me smiling, despite the turmoil of guilt mixed with absolute contentedness. Fuck, how I wish I didn’t have to go, a sentiment extremely familiar to how it felt leaving her in Hawaii.
That time I didn’t wake her up and regretted it ever since.
“C’mon, beautiful, I need you to wake up.” I pepper little kisses over her forehead and down her cheek until I feel her turn and meet my kiss with her own.
“I’m awake,” she says sleepily. “What time is it?”
“Just after one in the morning. I have to go home.” Regret laces my tone as Willow pushes up to sit, the sheet pooling around her waist, baring those perfect tits that moments ago were pressed up against me.
“God, you’re so fucking beautiful.” I lean in to steal another, deeper kiss. “I wish I could stay here and worship your body for hours.”
“Ronan,” she moans as I suck her neck, her fingers tangling in my hair.
“Tell me I can see you again,” I murmur against her soft skin, breathing in the aroma of sex and Willow. “And I don’t mean from a distance at a game or some damn event. I mean like this.”
“Seeing me naked might be a challenge,” she says, but there’s humour — and desire — in her voice.
“Challenge accepted.”
Pressing one final kiss to her neck, I lift my head and cup hers in my hand. “I want to take you out on a date, Willow Lawson. A real one, where I pick you up, take you out, and at the end of it, bring you back here to show you exactly why dating me is a really good idea.”
A seductive smirk crosses her face. “So you’re saying that sex is the only reason I should date you?”
“You mean really fucking good sex? Not the only reason, but one of many.”
Willow’s smile falls slightly as she sobers. “Ronan, I meant it when I said we have to keep this a secret for now. I’ve never dated a baseball player. And now I’m dating one who plays for the team I work for? I just…I need us to move slowly.”
I nod, keeping my eyes locked on hers so she knows I hear her. “I understand. And we’ll go at whatever pace you need. I’m just grateful you’re giving me a chance to show you this could work if we’re just open to it and honest about the fact that something exists between us.”
Her hand lifts to cover mine that is still cupping her cheek. “You and your belief in fate, huh?”
I shake my head as she turns to kiss my palm. “Not just fate. There’s so much more between us than just that. I want you like I’ve never wanted any other woman. I’ve never encountered anyone that makes me want to believe I can have it all. Not until you.”
A part of me is panicking that I’m moving too fast. That I’m being too honest, too vulnerable, by coming clean about everything I feel — have felt since meeting Willow. But when I look at her, I don’t see panic, I don’t see a woman ready to run in the opposite direction.
I see a woman ready to say yes.
“Can I take you out on a date?”
Her smile is blindingly brilliant. “Yes.”
Chapter twenty-five
Ronan
“I really wish you’d tell me where we’re going,” Willow says for the third time as I drive us to our date location. Just like the first two times, I just smile.
“Where’s the fun in that?” I squeeze her thigh lightly with my hand that’s been resting there since we left her apartment. The scorching-hot blue dress she’s wearing skims her body like it was made just for her, with a plunging V-neckline that shows off her breasts in a way that instantly had me hard. “You look stunning, Cherry.”
“You said that already,” she teases, lifting my hand from her leg to kiss my fingers before placing it back, only slightly higher this time.
